The University of Central Florida's new medical school soon will reach another major milestone: the first day of classes in its doctor-of-medicine program Aug. 3.

You can see the days, hours, minutes and seconds ticking down on a countdown clock posted prominently on the school's Web site, which is stuffed with reminders of major events to date. Among them are the school's creation by the Legislature in spring 2006, the hiring of founding Dean Deborah German late the same year and groundbreaking in October 2007 for the $68million permanent classroom building and library in Orlando's Lake Nona area.

Plenty more key development dates are on the horizon, including the planned move into the permanent building in summer 2010 and graduation of the first class in 2013.

Here's a look at what's in store through Aug. 3 and beyond for the young school:

The first classThe medical school's inaugural class of 40 students — the lucky ones receiving a free medical education thanks to community donations — are starting to make their way to Orlando from throughout the country.

Tiffany Chen will have a shorter drive than most. She recently graduated from prestigious Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore with a degree in art history but grew up in the Orlando area, graduating from Winter Park High.

"It is exciting to be a part of something that will change Orlando forever — to be a pioneer and help shape the future of the school," she wrote to the school recently.

Chosen during the past several months from 250 finalists culled from more than 4,300 applicants, members of the first class can expect their days and nights during the next four years to be heavily booked with classes, study time and internships.

Little time will be left for leisure. Many of them are vacationing before heading back to class.

When Aug. 3 rolls around, students will spend their first few hours in school at a "white coat" ceremony on the main campus. College donors will help students put on the traditional coats that identify them as medical students.

About 600 guests, including student family members, are expected at the invitation-only event.

After a brief mingle following the ceremony, students will be shipped off to orientation at the medical school's temporary quarters on the top two floors of a four-story building in the research park south of campus. Students will spend their first year of class in the temporary space, with everyone moving to the state-of-the-art permanent building the summer before the second year.

The administration and the growing faculty have been occupying the temporary space for more than a year.

Still others are from schools across the country such as Rutgers in New Jersey, Tulane University in New Orleans, Dartmouth College in New Hampshire and the University of California, Berkeley.

Twenty-two class members are women, the rest men. Four identify themselves as black, four as Asian, four as Hispanic, 26 as white and one declined to state.

Many of them took typical pre-med courses and reported majors such as chemistry, biology, biomedical engineering and microbiology. Others reported being economics, history and music majors.

Faculty and staffThe school has about 200 faculty and staff members, with many at work putting the finishing touches on the first-year curriculum. Some have already started work on second- and third-year curricula.

About 800 volunteer faculty, professionals drawn from the Central Florida medical community, will be available to teach in the future.

Student feedback will drive refinements to the curriculum, Andrew Payer, an anatomy professor and director of the first-year medical curriculum, told prospective students during a recent campus visit.

"We want the curriculum to be a living organism, getting better every year," he said.

Permanent homeConstruction continues on the four-story, 168,000-square-foot permanent medical-school classroom and library building in Lake Nona, about 20 miles south of the main campus. The school will anchor UCF's 50-acre Health Sciences campus, which includes the nearly complete 198,000-square-foot, $100 million Burnett Biomedical Sciences building.

The Burnett school, a stand-alone college before the establishment of the medical school, was folded into the medical school recently.

The M.D. Anderson Cancer Research Institute plans to occupy the top floor of the five-story Burnett building.

The medical school is also considered the centerpiece of a developing "medical city" that will include a Nemours children's hospital, the Burnham Institute for Medical Research and a Veterans Affairs hospital.

Prospective students toured the unfinished medical-school building in the spring and signed their names on an unfinished wall on an upper floor, just as top school and government officials did when they celebrated completion of the building's roof a short time earlier.

Although the medical-school building is scheduled for completion in spring 2010, students won't make the move until summer to avoid interrupting their studies, German has said.

The medical school's temporary quarters will then be available for use by other programs.

Personal connectionThe medical school is recruiting average folks from the Central Florida community to play the role of sick patients to help educate future doctors.

No special skills are needed, although it helps if participants have flexible schedules. Participants will be trained to display symptoms and help medical students gain experience in relating to patients and conducting physical exams. Experienced "standardized patients" could eventually be called on to help evaluate medical students' bedside manner.

Standardized-patient orientation sessions are scheduled 9 to 11 a.m. July 9 and 1 to 3 p.m. July 14. Demonstrations will be held, and pay rates will be discussed.